Harvard Could Learn a Thing or Two From Femininity

It’s a pretty good time for the 10,000 women of Harvard. Classes 2025 to 2028 are each majority woman, and it’s no longer surprising to see girls serving as University presidents, acting in shows, or even studying in Lamont Library.

Despite the abundance of women on campus, femininity is on the decline — traditionally feminine values, aspirations, and careers have yet to receive the respect afforded to their masculine counterparts.

No longer is college the place to earn an M.R.S. degree – or to wed at all, for that matter. Marrying young has become taboo. Thinking of having kids soon? That’s career suicide.

More fundamentally, many Harvard students sorely lack virtues like collaboration, empathy, and vulnerability.

This trend is evident in students’ career aspirations. The usual (very traditionally masculine) model prioritizes seeking positions of power and becoming the “top dog,” regardless of profession. Under such a framework, a collaborative career always ranks lower than a leadership position. Why work alongside other people when they could all work for you?

At Harvard, it’s all high-power, high-pay, low-passion. The number of graduates going into creative and educational careers has decreased over the years, and the ranks of those entering business, tech, and finance have swelled. And in order to get there, we expect students to elbow everyone else out of the way and recognize that it’s every man for himself. Yet, a study found those “primed to act collaboratively” while working on a task reported feeling more engaged and less fatigued. They were also more successful than their counterparts working solo.

We have up-valued traditionally masculine traits — think assertiveness, stoicity, independence — to the point that we have lost sight of the value traditionally feminine traits provide.

Take teaching, for example — a traditionally feminine career if there ever was one. A recent op-ed detailed how little prestige the Harvard student body found in teaching. Teaching America’s next generation just won’t make the cut for Harvard-level aspirations. Why? Because Harvard has become reliant on a masculine model of success — one where sacrificing prestige for impact doesn’t fit the bill.

And, of course, there’s the obvious. The role of parent is nowhere near anyone’s five-year vision board — not just mothers, fathers too. How can I ascend the corporate ladder with a BabyBjörn weighing me down?

This isn’t boy vs. girl, tradwife, bad-algorithm-Instagram-reel, women-should-be-where-they-belong propaganda. Feminine traits aren’t exclusive to women, just as masculine traits aren’t exclusive to men. This affects everyone.

Students at Harvard are reporting rising rates of burnout, depression, and anxiety. Given our engineered environment, it makes sense — our future aspirations have to fit into Forbes 30 Under 30, and our extracurriculars are just for the leadership header on our resume. Prestige trumps impact.

A little femininity can go a long way — for everyone.

Creating a less homogeneous image of a Harvard student is a good place to start. Harvard should be a place where regardless of your future aspirations, you feel that you can pursue them at the highest level. That doesn’t have to mean becoming the CEO, CFO, or some other corporate hotshot acronym.

In my experience, traditionally feminine careers (or lack thereof) are perceived as a “waste” of a Harvard degree. But that couldn’t be more wrong. My mom, a proud ’88 Harvard grad, is a homebirth midwife in our small West Virginia community — and I don’t think the Harvard education was wasted on her.

Your Harvard education can be leveraged beyond your career: in parenting, teaching, volunteering, and relationships. Revaluing traditional feminine values is step one.

Compassion and vulnerability should no longer be looked down upon. Empathy should be back in style, and please — let’s get some teamwork going while we are at it. Regardless of if you want to be a pantsuited quant mogul, financial consultant turned entrepreneur maverick, or a stay-at-home parent, embracing femininity can only help you.

Harvard may have opened the doors to well over 10,000 women — but femininity seems to be locked out.

Margot I. Cerbone ’28, a Crimson Editorial editor, lives in Canaday Hall.